Joy's Valve Gear Horizontal Engine

[kvom]

Painted the base yesterday, and started reassembly this afternoon. The paint job turned out OK in the end; not professional but decent from a couple of feet away. The paint is fairly thin and tended to run a bit down vertical surfaces so being slightly darker on crevices where it pooled. Here's where I stopped mid-afternoon.

I need to shim the cylinder and crosshead bars in order to get the crank and piston moving smoothly before putting the valve gear and reversing mechanism in place.

 

[kvom]

Back at it today, and finished the reassembly.

Did a quick run without oiling it up to test ooeration.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFTlSnMvJyI[/ame]

A little squeaky, but since I probably won't run it for a while I decided not to lube it and have oiled up and collecting dust.

I've decided for now to leave the flywheels unpainted, and declare this engine "finished". Might change my mind later.

Thinking I'll get back to the Westbury paddle engine now that Herbie is also working it.

 

[bouch]

Did a quick run without oiling it up to test ooeration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFTlSnMvJyI

Congratulations on a nice looking engine!

Bit surprised that you have it running "under". Most engines I've seen usually run "over..."

 

[kvom]

As a result of my goal to turn a multi-start thread, once having succeeded on a short piece of brass, I decided to remake the reversing shaft on this engine. Previously it had been made of a length of 1/4-20 threaded rod. With a 2" movement of the nut needed for full forward to reverse, some 40 turns of the crank would be needed. Using a 5/16-18 double lead (effectively 9 turns/inch), the time needed would be cut in more than half.

Choice of this thread form had several unanticipated benefits. First, the drill size for the tap is F, or .257". That means that the nut can be drilled out and retapped rather than remade. Second, the nut will pass over the 1/4-20 at the top so that the crank wheel would not need to be remade either.

The shaft consists of a 1" section 1/4" diameter with .75" threads. Then 2.75" of 5-16-18 and then .75" of unturned 5/16 stock, all made from drill rod. The bottom section was then attached to the lower 1/2" diameter section with loctite.

Here's the finished result:

The reversing motion is now also smoother.